Recordable media

BT comes clean on bandwidth curbs.

Wednesday 17 October 2001British Telecom’s broadband internet division, BT Openworld, has admitted placing restrictions on certain users, despite categorically denying that exact charge previously. The ploy was exposed last week on BBC’s consumer investigation programme Watchdog, and prompted an email response to customers from the company to explain what was going on. The move was described as ‘traffic controls on particular applications and ports.’ In related news, Dixons chief-executive John Clare placed the blame for the low broadband uptake in the UK squarely with BT. Clare told The Sun; “There are two factors in faster internet access, the modem and the phoneline. We’ve been selling bigger modems but there’s no point in having these without a faster line. A lot (of the blame) can be laid at BT’s door. It’s had a significant effect on the potential of the internet market to grow and has made us a second division player behind the likes of France and Germany.”